A senior UN official has told the BBC that hundreds of thousands of Malian nationals who fled in the wake of Islamic terrorists taking over the northern part of the nation have refused to return out of fear the terrorists will regain control of the region.
The refugees cited a pattern of rape and amputations against women and children by the Islamists as the leading fears preventing their return. Continue reading
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is reporting that Wednesday marked the bloodiest day of the 18-month-old civil war with 305 people killed in the fighting. SOHR reported that 199 of the dead were civilians.
“If we count the unidentified bodies [which are not counted in official totals,] the figure will be much higher,” Rami Abdel Rahman of SOHR told the BBC. Continue reading
Activists are reporting that the Syrian army has attacked a town that has been a major crossing into Jordan for civilians that are fleeing the country’s civil war. At least 20 government tanks have rolled into Tal Shehab, a Free Syrian Army held town.
The move by the government comes amid reports from Jordan that over 183,000 civilians have entered the country since the start of the war. The Jordanian government reports that as many as 1,000 refugees are daily crossing the border. Continue reading
The UN has reported that over 100,000 Syrians have fled the country in the wake of the increased fighting between government forces and the Free Syrian Army. The total almost doubled the overall number of civilians fleeing the country’s civil war.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is attempting to negotiate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to allow humanitarian aid in the country. Al-Assad has previously resisted outside humanitarian assistance into the country claiming that the relief is just a “foreign plot”. Continue reading